TOKYO--The latest issue of Famitsu magazine features an interview with Final Fantasy XII character designer Akihiko Yoshida and art director Hideo Minaba. Yoshida, who worked on Final Fantasy Tactics, and Minaba, a series veteran since 1992's Final Fantasy V, revealed more details about Square Enix's eagerly awaited role-playing game. An English translation of the interview is below:

Q: When did the development on FFXII begin?

Minaba: Quite some time ago. In the beginning, we started out trying to make a game for PlayOnline, since Matsuno [the director] was involved in that project. It was a really small project, where we were thinking of producing one game in about half a year's time. Yoshida was doing the background artwork and I was doing the character designs for the fun of it. Before we realized it, it was a full-time project.

Yoshida: That's kind of how the game began, but it's not really the official beginning of FFXII's development launch.

Q: We previously heard from Matsuno that Ashe was modeled on a Frenchwoman's bone structure.